Iran's Contributions to Human Rights, the Rights of Women and Democracy

Author(s): Dariush Borbor

Source: Iran & the Caucasus, Vol. 12, No. 1 (2008), pp. 101-121
Published by: BRILL
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25597358 .
Accessed: 14/02/2014 07:11
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
.
BRILL is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Iran &the Caucasus.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
brill
Iran and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
\
W
/
Iran's Contributions
to
Human
Rights,
the
Rights
of Women and
Democracy
Dariush Borbor
Arya
International
University,
Yerevan
Abstract
Most scholars
generally
pre-suppose
that the
concept
of
democracy
is the exclusive
creation of classical Greece and a token of the West to the rest of the world. This
concept
has
originated mainly
due to the fact that much of the ancient Iranian his
tory
was
only
known
through
classical Greek
writings
before the
ever-increasing
archaeological
finds and
decipherments
of ancient Near Eastern
primary
sources,
which have shed a
very
different
light
on the
subject.
This
paper attempts
to alleviate and restore a
few of the more vital
recurring
mis
understandings, misinterpretations
and
misconceptions
in this
field,
and endeav
ours to
present
them in a more realistic historic and
historiographic perspective
in
the
light
of the latest available
scholarship.
Beginning
in 2200 B.C. Old Elamite
Kingdom,
was the first manifestation in the
world of a structured
and,
at
times,
democratically
elected heads of state based on
matriarchal
right
of descent.
Beginning
in Elam and
continuing
at least to the be
ginning
of the Islamic
period,
no ancient
peoples, including
the Greeks and the
Egyptians,
have
surpassed
the
practice
of the
rights
of women, and the
equality
of
men
and
women as in Iran. In
early
7th
century
B.C.
Iran,
the
pronouncement by
Zoroaster,
through
Avestan
literature,
was the first manifestation of the
rights
of
women and
unequivocal equality
of
gender
in all
aspects
and
positions
of
society.
In
the second
part
of the 7th
century
B.C.
Media,
we encounter the ratification
by
popular
vote of the first constitution for a
democratically
elected confederated em
pire,
headed
by
Dioces,
who
was
the first recorded
popularly
elected
emperor.
In
539
B.C.,
we come
upon
the declaration of the first
generally accepted
Charter of
Rights
of Nations
by Cyrus
the Great. In 522-486
B.C.,
in the
reign
of Darius the
Great,
appeared
the first confirmation of a written entrenched democratic constitu
tion. In the 4th
century
A.D.
(or earlier)
Sasanian
Iran,
the first
appearance
of an ad
vanced
system
of Common Law based
on
well-documented
jurisprudence
was mate
rialised. And
finally,
the confederated
system
of
government
in
Iran,
which survived
the vicissitudes of
history
and
changes
of several
dynasties,
remained in force one
way
or
the other to become the most
enduring system
of
government
in world his
tory spanning
a
period
of two-and-half millennia.
?
Koninklijke
Brill
NV, Leiden,
2008 DOI:
10.1163/157338408X326235
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
102
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
Keywords
History
of Iranian
Democracy,
Human
Rights
in
Iran,
Rights
of Women in Iran
Introductory Note
Whereas Iran's influence
on
the
arts,
poetry, philosophy, religion,
and
world civilisation has been studied
reasonably extensively,
Iran's im
portant
contributions to
democracy,
human
rights
and the
rights of
women
have been
sadly neglected.
Even
though
a
number of historical studies
on
the
origins
of
democracy
in the
neighbouring Mesopotamia1
and In
dia2
are
available,
none exists for Iran.
At the same
time,
a
great
deal of
fallacy
has
reigned among many
scholars who have
pre-supposed
that the
concept
of
democracy
is the
exclusive creation of classical Greece and
a
token of the West to the rest
of the world. This
concept originated mainly
due to the fact that much
of the ancient Iranian and the Near East
history
was
only
known
through
classical Greek
writings
before the
ever-increasing
archaeo
logical
finds and
decipherments
of ancient Near Eastern
primary
sources,
which have shed
a
very
different
light
on the
subject.
In
spite
of the fact that
a
number of modern scholars have
presented
a more
balanced and
objective
view on some of the
aspects
in recent
times,
there is still much
misperception concerning
certain elements. The en
suing
pages attempt
to alleviate and restore a
few of the more vital re
curring topics,
and endeavour to
present
them in a more realistic his
toric and
historiographic perspective
in the
light
of the latest available
scholarship.
As the achievement and
propagation
of
democracy
is
dependant
on a
number of
major
inter-related
criteria,
which must exist and
operate
simultaneously?the
most
important being
urbanisation,
constitutional
ism,
rule
of
law,
human
rights
and the
rights of
women?we treat each of
these
separately.
Urbanisation
One of the
important pre-conditions
for
democracy
is urbanisation.
Generally speaking,
a
basic
pastoral
or tribal
society
does not sense a
1
S. N.
Kramer,
The Sumerians: Their
History,
Culture,
and
Character,
Chicago-Lon
don,
1971:
37, 74,
186
ff.,
records the
convening
of man's first
political assembly,
which met over
forty-five
hundred
years ago.
2
In
early
Vedic,
mentions of various
categories
of assemblies such
as
vidatha,
sa
miti,
and sabha are made.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
103
great necessity
for
democracy
until it
develops
or is associated with
an
urban
community.
The
origins
of
democracy,
both in the ancient East
and later Greece
developed concurrently
with the formation of
city
states.3
Consequently,
the
presentation
of
a
brief overview of urbanisa
tion in ancient Iran becomes
indispensable
for
a
better
understanding
of the
development
of
democracy.
Permanent settlements in favourable locations
on
the
plateau
date
to as
early
as 7000
B.C.,
developments
with
regional
centres to 4000
B.C.,
and
regional
states to 1700
B.C.,
much earlier than the western
neigh
bours,4
and
preceding
Greece
by
2000
years.5 "Completely developed
settlement
systems
in the Susiana
plain,
with centres such as Susa that
exceed in size
anything
else
we know of
up
to that time"6 subsisted in
continuous
development
in Iran as
early
as 3000 B.C.
The
area
from the Lower
Mesopotamia up
to the
ridges
of the
Zagros
Mountains
presents
all
types
of
settlements,
from the first
develop
ments of the
Pre-pottery
Neolithic,
and the
Pottery
Neolithic,
through
the first
larger permanent
communities,
up
to all the
higher
forms of
organisation,
such
as
the
city
and the state.7 The
Pre-pottery
Neolithic,
but also the earliest sites from the
Pottery
Neolithic
period
were
all
situated in the
valleys
of the
Zagros
or at the exits of such
valleys. They
included:
Teppe
Guran,
Teppe
Sarab,
Ganj
Dareh,
and
Qal'e
Rostam.
These
were
isolated
developments,
each situated far
away
from other
sites of the same
period.
In the
following period
settlements start to ad
vance into the smaller
plains,
Ja'ffarabad
and
Chogha
Mish are such ex
amples. Completely developed
urbanisation
appear,
for the first
time,
in
the Late Susiana
period.8
The existence of
communities,
fortified citadels with ruler's
palace,
dwellings
of the
aristocracy, paved
streets,
outer town with crowded
dwellings
and a
nearby cemetery;
combined with
agriculture,
vine
growing, breeding
of cattle and
working
of metal and other handicrafts9
3
For the
origins
of the
city-states
in the
East,
cf. M. Van de
Mieroop,
A
History of
the Ancient Near
East, Maiden, MA-Oxford,
2004:18ff.
4
H.
J. Nissen,
The
Early History of
the Ancient Near East 9000-2000
B.C.,
Chicago-Lon
don,
1988:
5,
fig.
1;
Van de
Mieroop, op.
cit.:
44,
map
3.1.
5
A.
Parrot, Sumer, Paris,
1981:131-199.
6
Nissen,
op.cit:
54-55, 108,
and
fig.
16
(distribution
of settlements in
Susiana,
Late Uruk
period).
7
Ibid.: 48-49.
8
Ibid.: 52.
9
E.g.,
for
Hasanlu,
near the south-western corner of Lake
Urmlya,
see R. H.
Dyson,
"Hasanlu
teppe", Encyclopaedia
Iranica, XXII,
fasc.
1,
Winona
Lake,
2004: 41
46;
for
Sialk,
near
present day
Kasan,
see R.
Ghirshman,
L'Iran des
origines
a
Islam,
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
104
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
in various
parts
of the Iranian
plateau
is further decisive indication of
well
developed
urban settlements. Other urban
areas
such
as
Teppe
Yahya10
(4th
and 3rd Millennia
B.C.)
156 miles south of
Kerman,
and the
Sahr Soxteh11
near
Zabol in
STstan-Balocestan,
later Ecbatana and others
are other
examples
of urbanisation in ancient Iran.
Contemporary
Accadian and Sumerian records
prove
that
Elam,12
in
fact,
was the earliest
part
of
present-day
Iran to reach the level of urban
civilisation,
and
already
had been
previously
ruled
on
confederated
lines. Reliefs
by
the
Assyrian king Sargon
II
(end
of the 8th
century
B.C.),
also ancient seals show well
developed
fortressed citadels and tower
dwellings
in the
Empire
of the Median Confederation.13
Jeremiah (25:25;
50:41-43; 51:27-28)
in his discourse refers to
"kings
of Media" in the
plu
ral,
alongside
with
satraps (pdhoth, Assyrian pehdte),
and
governors
(sdgdn, Assyrian
saknu).
The later
Persepolis
Tablets14
(509-458 B.C.)
attest
well
organised,
urban
administration,
management
and finance.
The statement
by
Herodotus
(I: 125)
that "the Persian nation con
tains a
number of tribes
...
Pasargadae, Maraphii,
and
Maspii, upon
which all the other tribes
are
dependent.
Of
these,
the
Pasargadae
are
the most
distinguished; they
contain the clan of the Achaemenids from
which
spring
the Perseid
kings.
Other tribes
are
the
Panthialaei,
Derusi
aei, Germanii,
all of which
are
attached to the
soil,
the
remainder?Dai,
Mardi,
Dropici, Sargati?being
nomadic"15 has tended to bewitch and
confuse
many
scholars in
mistakenly referring
to
Elamite, Median,
Achaemenian,
and Parthian administrations
as a
federation of
tribes,
whereas Herodotus himself
distinguishes
between the
already
settled
peoples
attached to the soil16 and the nomadic.
Long
before
Herodotus,
the
pre-Median Assyrian inscriptions
talk of
twenty-seven "kings"
of Parsua with the determinative of
"country",
Paris,
1976: 43
ff;
I. M.
Diakonoff, "Media",
Cambridge History of
Iran
(CHI),
vol.
2,
Cam
bridge,
1985:57-58.
10
Discovered
by
C.C.
Lamberg-Karlovsky.
11
Found in 1967 and
gradually
excavated ever since.
12
J. Hansman,
"Charax and
Karkheh",
Iranica
Antiqua,
VII, Leiden,
1967: 21-58.
13
R.
Ghirshman,
Persia
from
the
Origins
to Alexander the
Great, London,
1964:
85,
plate
110.
14
Administrative records in the
reigns
of Darius the
Great,
Xerxes and Artaxer
xes I
(R.
T.
Hallock,
Persepolis Fortification
Tablets,
Chicago,
1969; idem,
"A New Look at
the
Persepolis Treasury
Tablets", JNES
19,
Chicago,
1960:
90-100; idem,
"Selected For
tification
Texts",
CDAE18
(1978): 109-36; etc.).
15
Herodotus,
trans. A. de
Selincourt, London,
1988: 93-94.
16
Herodotus,
trans. G.
Rawlinson,
New
York,
1942: 56
("husbandry").
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
105
never with that of "tribe".17 Further evidence for the non-tribal nature of
the administration is found in
place
names
and the names
of rulers in
written sources
down to the second
quarter
of the 1st millennium
B.C.,
with rare mention of tribes.18
The
widespread
existence of
tribes,19
which
we
do not
deny
or
dis
pute,
must not be taken for evidence of
a
nomadic
system
of
govern
ment in ancient Iran.20
In view of the written and
archaeological
evi
dence that
point strongly
towards overall
organised
urban settlements
throughout
the
territory,
we
may
conclude that both Elamite and Me
dian,
and later
Acheamenian, Parthian,
and Sasanian
empires
were,
in
fact,
confederations
of
a
number of
united,
autonomous
city-states
in a
geographical
or
administrative
region,
which were in turn combined
into a
kingdom
or a
state,
amalgamated
with other states into an
empire.
This well-established
confederated
mode of administration continued
one
way
or
the other until Reza Shah who
opted
for
a
highly
centralised
method of rule. The
augmentation
in the number of the Ostdns
(states),
and
an
increased
delegation
of
power
to the
provinces,
after the Islamic
Revolution is a
step
in the
right
direction for
a
possible
return to the
confederated
manner
of
government.
Talking
of the
system
of rule of the
Medes, Herodotus,
along
with
other
Greeks,
who did not
clearly comprehend
the doctrines of
a
confed
erated state
gave
the
following clumsy picture:
"the various nations
gov
erned each
other,
the Medes
being
the
supreme
authority
and con
cerning
themselves
specially
with their nearest
neighbours;
these in
turn
ruling
their
neighbours,
who
were
responsible
for the
next,
and
so
on".21 It denotes in modern terms a
decentralised, hierarchal,
delegated
approach
to administration based
on
geographical
distance,
in which
the states that were
far
away
from the central
government
were
di
rected
by
nearer
states,
a
type
of rule that must have created
great
con
venience and
speed
in all
affairs,
including
decision
making.
The exis
tence of the
"Satrap
of
Satraps",
on
the
analogy
of
"King
of
Kings",
well
explains
the hierarchic
delegation
of
power
in the sense
that the affairs
17
Diakonoff, op.
cit.: 61.
18
Ibid.: 44.
19
Such as
the
QutI, Lullubl,
Kassites and others who were
originally
situated to
the west of Media
proper.
20
The main social basis of the Achaemenian
society,
and
probably
the
Medians,
was kdra-
"Kriegvolk"
(see
I. M. Diakonoff
(Dyakonov), Isroriya
Midii,
Moscow-Lenin
grad,
1956:
333ff.).
21
Herodotus, 1:134,
trans. Selincourt: 97.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
106
D.
Borbor/
Iran and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
of one
satrapy
were
managed by
another.22 Such
complicated
method of
rule with
a
multitude of sub-divisions must have been the
cause
for
various historians' to have
given
different numbers for the administra
tive divisions of ancient
Iran,
some of which
appear
much
exaggerated:
"King
Xerxes ruled
over 127
provinces,
all the
way
from India to Su
dan".23
CONSTITUTIONALISM
The
underlying concept
of how
an
ancient
or
modern
country
is
politi
cally managed
or
ruled,
including
its
aspirations
to
democracy,
have al
ways
been
dependant
on
the
percept
of its basic
or
constitutional law. The
ancient Near East has been the cradle of
quite
well
developed
basic laws
dating
back to more
than four millennia.
Briefly,
the earliest known constitutional law
was
issued
by
the Sum
erian
king Urukagina
of
Lagash
(c.
2300
B.C.)24
The oldest
existing
con
stitutional document is that of Ur-Nammu
(c.
2050
B.C.)25
The most
comprehensive
of the ancient
constitutions,
which is well
preserved
is
that of
Hammurabi,
reign
c. 1792-1750
B.C.,
the basic theme
focusing
on
the
concept
of
justice:
"to make
justice appear
in the
land,
to
destroy
the evil and the wicked that the
strong might
not
oppress
the weak".26
This idea has been
closely
echoed
by
many
later
monarchs,
including
Darius the Great and Xerxes I:
"...By
the favour of Ahuramazda I am of
such
a kind that I am a
friend to what is
right,
I am no
friend to what is
wrong.
It is not
my
wish that to the weak is done
wrong
because of the
mighty,
it is not
my
wish that the weak is hurt because of the
mighty,
that the
mighty
is hurt because of the weak. What is
right,
that is
my
wish"
(DNb,
??
2-3; XNb).27
The constitutional laws
of
the Hittites consisted of
some 200
articles,
the
earliest
surviving
version dates to c. 1650 B.C.28
In contrast to the
Hammurabi
law,
which
was
retributive,
the Hittite law
was
compensa
22
E.
Herzfeld,
Am Tor von Asien: Felsdenkmale
aus Irans
Heldenzeit, Berlin,
1920:
39;
R. N.
Frye,
The
Heritage of
Persia, London,
1962:192.
23
Esther,
1:1-2.
24
Excavated in
Iraq by
Ernest de Sarzec in 1877.
25
Kramer,
op.
cit. 83 ff.
26
G. R.
Driver, J.
C.
Miles,
The
Babylonian
Laws, II, Oxford,
1955: 7.
27
R.
Kent,
Old Persian:
Grammar, Texts, Lexicon,
New
Haven, 1961:140;
P.
Lecoq,
Les
inscriptions
de la Perse
achemenide, Paris,
1997:
222;
B.
Gharib,
"A
Newly
Found
Inscrip
tion of
Xerxes",
Iranica
Antiqua,
8
(1968):
11-29.
28
T.
Bryce, Life
and
Society
in the Hittite
World,
Oxford-New
York,
2002: 34.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
107
tory.29
A fundamental
right
of the
subjects
was
legal
redress for offences
committed
against
their
persons
or
their
property,
and the
granting
of
fair
compensation
to the victims of
an
offence. The Chief
Justice,
re
sponsible
for the administration of the law of the
land,
had strict
guide
lines for his
performance
of
duty.30
The first constitutional
assembly
recorded in
history
is that of the 7th
century
B.C.
Media,
reported by
Herodotus: "The Medes discussed the
situation at a
general meeting...Let
us
appoint
one
of
our
number to rule
us so
that
we can
get
on
with
our
work under
orderly government...The
argument prevailed
and the
assembly
was
persuaded
to set
up
a monar
chy
...
The next
step
was to
propose
candidates for the
royal
office,
and
as
during
the debate Dioces and his admirable
qualities
were on
every
body's lips,
he was
the
man
they agreed
to
appoint".31
The
consequence
of this event led to the ratification of the first constitution
for
a
democrati
cally
elected
confederation.32 Agbatana
or
Ecbatana,33
"place
of
assembly",
was
probably
the seat of the
event,
or so
named to honour the occasion.
The
system
did not
stop
here,
and
may
be detected at different
peri
ods
throughout
the Iranian
history.
In most
matters,
the affairs of the
Empire of
Median
Confederation34
was
further
expanded, developed
and
re
fined
by
the
proceeding
confederated
empires.
The first known written entrenched democratic constitution in the world
was
instituted at the
beginnings
of the Achaemenian
era,
prepared by
the
leading
administrators of the
Empire
either
by popular
vote or con
sensus,
and
subsequently presented
to Darius the Great
(522-486 B.C.)
for his
signature
and
propagation:
"Us who administer
your
em
pire?the supervisors,
the
governors,
the
lieutenant-governors,
and the
other officials?have
agreed
that
your majesty
should issue an
order
and enforce it
strictly...
So let
your majesty
issue this order and
sign
it,
29
Ibid.: 33.
30
0. R.
Gurney,
The
Hittites, London,
1990: 76.
31
Herodotus,
I:
97-98,
trans. Selincourt: 82. Some scholars have
disputed
this
statement as a non-Iranian
concept.
The
reporting
of the existence of various
types
of assemblies
or
councils at different
epochs
in ancient Iran
by
various
independent
sources
disproves
such
assumption.
32
The
only
other
existing example,
that of
Confederatio
Helvetica of
Switzerland,
was
instituted
no sooner than in 1848 A.D.!
33
Herodotus, 1:98; Diakonoff, op.
cit.
34
The term "confederation" used
throughout
this
paper
is
applicable
to the
Elamite
predecessor,
and the later
Achaemenian,
Parthian and Sasanian
Empires,
which utilised this overall
system
of
government
and administration.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
108
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
and it will be in
force,
a
law of the Medes and
Persians,
which cannot be
changed".35
The Rule of Law
While
democracy
is not a
necessity
for state
formation,
no
great empire
can survive for
long
without attention to the rule of law and an
all
em
bracing judicial approach.
All
great empires
of the
world, Iranian, Roman,
Chinese,
and the later British benefited from
a
well-developed judicial
or
ganisation.
Accadian and Sumerian records indicate the existence of
judges
for in
dividual
city
states in
Elam,
such as
Huhunuri,
modern Malamlr
(Iseh)
to
the East of
Susa,
and
Zahara,
etc.36 These
judges
are
likely
to have
prac
ticed under the
jurisdiction
of a Chief
Justice
and
a
Supreme
Court,
as was
put
to
practice by
the
Hittites,37
and later in Iran.38 The
judicial organisa
tion of the several
empires
of Iran
starting
with Elam
were
all based
on
confederated
arrangement.
Each
city-state
and
province
had its own
multi-leveled,
hierarchal
judicial
institutions
(Old
Persian
ddtabard,
Middle
Persian
ddt(a)fiar,
Parthian
dddbar),
but also in
every
rural division
(rotas
tdk),
headed at the
very top by ddtafiardn ddtafiar,
the Chief
Justice,
who
presided
over
the
judicial organisation
of the whole
empire
at the Su
preme
Court. In a
modern
concept,
the citizens were even
authorised to be
assisted
by attorneys
at law
(dastajiarTh)
in all
aspects
of their
legal
pro
ceedings.39
Although
Iranian rulers
might
have
promulgated
the laws of the state
throughout
the
empire,
nevertheless
they
also tried to learn and benefit
from local and traditional
practices
of their
subject peoples.40
This is well
illustrated
by
the
general policy
of Darius the Great who ordered the
codification of
Egyptian
laws in Demotic and Aramaic?a
venture,
which
took
many years
to
complete,41
and
later,
Artaxerxes
I,
commissioned
Ezra,
the
scribe,
to administer the law to his
people,
which led to the
even
35
Daniel,
6:6-9.
361. M.
Diakonoff, "Elam",
CHI
2,
Cambridge,
1985:
5,
7.
37
Gurney, op.
cit.: 76.
38
Diakonoff, op.
cit.:
7;
A.
Perikhanian,
"Iranian
Society
and
Law", CHI, 3(2),
Cam
bridge,
1983:736.
39
Mdtakddn
/
Mdtikan
i
hazdr
ddtastdn, 78:2-3;
W.
Eilers,
"Iran and
Mesopotamia",
CHI, 3(1),
Cambridge,
1983:
495; Perikhanian, op.
cit.:
651, 676,
736.
40
R. N.
Frye,
"Institutions",
G. Walser
(ed.) Beitrdge
zur
Achamenidengeschischte,
Wiesbaden,
1972: 92.
41
Verso of Demotic
Papyrus
215 in
Bibliotheque
Nationale, Paris; Diodorus,
1.95.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
109
tual codification of the Mosaic law.42
Judging by
Darius the Great's intense
interest in the
regulation
of
judicial
order,
and his mention of
"my
law" in
stead of "the
law",43
we
may
assume that Darius the Great had ordered the
codification of the laws of the Medes and
Persians,
if
they
were not
already
partially
or
completely
done.
The most
comprehensive legal
document of
a
later
period,
which has
come
down to us is the "Book of
a
thousand
Judicial Decisions",44
in the
reign
of Xosrau ParvTz II
(591-628 A.D.),
intended
as an
important
work
ing
tool in the
judicial system. Considering
that the law was not codified
on an
all-Iran scale in Sasanian
times,
and
taking
into account that the
document under consideration is a
compilation
of
a
limited number of
judgements,
it is
possible
nevertheless to obtain
a
good insight
into the
advanced nature of the
judicial organisation
of ancient Iran.
Legal
commentaries
were written and recorded in different times.
What is
important,
however,
is that the
compiler
of the
Judicial
Deci
sions refers and
quotes
from collections
of judicial
decisions,
which
were
obviously kept
for
reference,
and what has
come
down to us must be
a
small number of the
totality. Apart
from
these,
the author had
access to
court
records,
minutes of
interrogations,
decisions
by judges,
archives
of
wills,
which must have been
meticulously preserved.45
We are
told
that the
original
documents
appertaining
to the
widely practiced
en
dowments
were
kept
in a
specially
constructed
building
bun-xanak for
safe-keeping,
while the divdn-i-kartakdn
was the secretariat for the ad
ministration of endowments.46
The existence of law
schools,
and a
special
book of instruction on
procedure
for
appeals,
which
was
called
mustafiar-ndmak47
is further
manifestation of
an
advanced
judicial system.
An archive of the Commandments
of
the
Kings
was
also
carefully kept.
The word
commandment,
must not be mis-construed that such edicts
were
the
prerogative
of the
king's
autocratic
power.
The
fundamental
laws were
fully
debated,
modified and
changed
whenever
necessary
be
42
E. M.
Yamauchi,
Persia and the
Bible,
Grand
Rapids,
MI,
1996: 256ff.
43
Behistun,
DB ? 8.
44
See A. G. Perikhanian
(Perixanyan), Sasanidskij
sudebnik, Erevan, 1973;
also
by
the same
author,
Obscestvo i
pravo
Irana v
parfyanskij
i
sasanidskij periody,
Moscow,
1983.
45
Important supplements
to the
Judicial
Decisions is Book VIII of
Denkard,
which
contains
epitomes
of these nasks in the form of indexes or
subject
lists,
and the Law
Book of Yiso'boxt for Christians in Sasanian
Iran,
which survives in a
Syriac
transla
tion
(Perikhanian,
"Iranian
Society
and Law":
631).
46
Kartlr,
KZ
inscription
(Perikhanian, op.
cit:
662-664,
note
4).
47
Ibid.: 629-30.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
110
D.
Borbor/
Iran and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
fore
being passed ultimately
to the
king
for ultimate
enactment;
in
many
instances,
they
were
compiled
and
approved by
the
"legislature",
and
only presented
to the
king
for
signature
and final
propagation.48
Judging by
the available
evidence,
only
these
legal
documents were
considered
as
Supreme
Laws or
Commandments,
which could not have
been
changed
or
modified
by simple statutory
law,
they
were known
throughout
the
Empire
as
the Laws
of
the Medes and
Persians,
and
were in
fact,
the
first fully
entrenched constitutional laws in world
history.
The idea of
precedence
in
jurisprudence
of the common
law was
also
applied
to the Fundamental
Law and
greatly respected by ensuing
rulers,
such
as the commandment of
Cyrus
the Great
concerning
the
rebuilding
of the
Jewish temple
at
Jerusalem.49
Although
common
and
customary
laws were the oldest manifesta
tion of
a
legal system,
the well documented Iranian mode of
jurispru
dence is the
first
recorded
forerunner of
modern Common Law. The Common
Law
practiced
much later in Great
Britain,
the United
States,
and
many
other
countries,
which evolved from the 12th
century
A.D.
onward,
have the
same
concept
as
the ancient Iranian model.
The modern
concept
of the
separation
of
religion
and
government,
which is considered
an
essential criterion for the
good functioning
of
democracy,
was current in
pre-Islamic
Iran.
Although
a
parallel relig
ious
organisation
and
hierarchy
functioned
alongside
that of the
public
administration,
and
even
displayed
titles in
analogy
with the civil titles
such
as
magupatdn magupat
(Primate [of
the Zoroastrian
Order]),
moba
ddn mobad
(Chief
Priest
[of
the Zoroastrian
order])50
or
herbaddn herbad
(Most
Savant
[of
the Zoroastrian
Religion]),
a
distinct tradition of the
separation
of
religion
and
government
is
very
discernible in the socio
political
structure of ancient Iran. In
spite
of the fact that most ancient
laws
were
sanctified
by religious
ethics,51
it was not
necessarily
the
case
in ancient Iran.
Although, according
to
Denkart,
written commentaries
48
Daniel, 6:6-9; Esther,
1:13-14.
49
Ezra,
6:1-12. The
authenticity
of the several so-called Persian documents used
in Ezra are
demonstrated
by Captain Hensley's unpublished
Ph.D.
thesis,
The
official
Persian Documents in the Book
of
Ezra,
Liverpool University,
1977.
50
Mobaddn mobad
appointed
the ecclesiastics and
performed
the act of corona
tion,
placing
the
crown on the head of the
new
ruler.
Compare
this with the func
tions of the
Archbishop
of
Canterbury
as
the head of the Church of
England,
and the
tradition of the
placing
of the crown on the head of the monarch
during
the
corona
tion
ceremony.
51
Perikhanian, op.
cit.: 628.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
111
on
the
legal
nasks52 of the Avesta still
persisted
until the middle of the
Sasanian
period,
the
separation
of the "Laws of God" and the "Laws of
the
Empire"
were
already
well
applied
as
far back
as Xerxes I.53 And the
code of laws mentioned
by
Darius the Great54 must have been secular.
A
significant aspect
of the
separation
of
religion
and
government
is
the
important reality
that the ancient rulers of
Iran,
contrary
to Greek
claims,55
were never deified
or
worshiped
as
gods,
in
spite
of the fact
that
they
often boasted that
they
became rulers with the
support
or as
sistance of Ahura Mazda.
Only
in
Egypt
did the ancient Iranian rulers conform with the native
Egyptian ruler-god
tradition in order to
appease
the
Egyptians.
The
nearest other instances of manifestation to deification in Iranian his
tory appear
firstly
in the Parhian
period,
and
secondly
in the Sasanian.
The Parthian demonstration is
certainly
due to Hellenic influence and
not an Iranian trend.
Whatever the
case,
the assertion of
divinity during
the Parthian
pe
riod must have been
very
unsure
and controversial
as it did not
appear
on
all the coins
even
of the
same
king,
and not on
any
of the coins of the
later Parthian
period.
Human Rights
Iran's
greatest
contribution to human
rights
may
be summarised in one
word,
tolerance. Four
very important
traditional conducts of the Iranians
towards their
own
peoples
and defeated
or
colonised territories were
of
great importance
as
far as
human
rights
were
concerned: first of
all,
a
high regard
for local
conditions,
customs and
traditions;
secondly,
a
high respect
and esteem for
foreign
deities and
religions (except
for
a
couple
of short
periods); thirdly,
the
appointment
of autochthonous
civil
servants,
officials and
dignitaries
to
important positions;
and fi
nally,
the
purposeful intermingling
and
marriage
of Iranians with the
local
population
of their colonies at all levels of the
society.
52
The Sasanian canon
of the Avesta was
divided into 21
volumes,
called nasks in
the Pahlavi
language.
53
Ezra,
7:26.
54
Behistun,
DB ? 8.
55
Aeschylus
(Persae, 156)
in which the Chorus is
permitted
to address Atossa as
the "wife of a
god"
and "mother of a
god";
Curtius Rufus
(Historiae
Alexandri
Magni,
VIII:
5,10)
insinuates that the Persians
worshipped
their
kings among
the
gods;
Isocrates also made a
rhetorical remark that the Persian
kings
were
worshipped
as
gods;
see
also
Plutarch, Themistocles,
27.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
112
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
These
ideologies
were not limited to the
reign
of
Cyrus
the
Great,
but
to various
epochs throughout
the Iranian
history. Perhaps
the most
widely
advertised known Iranian
gesture
towards the
peoples
of
a
de
feated nation
was
the
freeing
of the
captives
and
slaves,
both
Jewish
and
others,
and the
placing
of the
gods
of whatever creed in their
original
sanctuaries,
including
the renovation or
the
rebuilding
of their tem
ples.56
In Median and Achaemenian
periods, slavery appears
to have been
limited
mainly
to
prisoners
of war. The
rights
of the slaves in this
period
is
illustrated
by
a
casual remark of Herodotus that "the
son of a
noble
Mede
can
play
with the
son
of
a
slave
on
equal
terms"57?which is more
than one can
say
for 20th
century
America.58 In the Sasanian
era,
we
have evidence of
a
number of
rights
for the
slaves,
the most
important
of these
being
the
right
to
practice
their
own
religion,
the
right
to sue
the master
against
cruel treatment and to obtain
compensation.59
Contrary
to Herodotus' adverse
opinion
of
Cambyses,60
local
Egyp
tian documents61 reveal that
"Cambyses' policy
in
Egypt closely
fol
lowed that of
Cyrus
in
Babylonia: forgoing
links with the local
elites,
in
stalling
them in honoured
(though
not
politically powerful) positions,
exploiting
their
familiarity
with local conditions in order to make
ac
ceptance
of his rule
as
palatable
as
possible
and
moulding
himself to fit
the role
an
Egyptian king
was
traditionally expected
to fill".62 This is
well
proved by
the
following
statement of the
Egyptian
medical
con
sultant
Udjahorresnet:
"Sa
Majeste (Cambyses)
se
rendit
en
personne
au
temple
de Neith. Il se
prosterna
tres
grandement
devant Sa
Majeste
(Ne
ith),
comme le faisait tout roi".63
Cambyses
also funded the
temple
at
Sais.64 This was followed
by
Darius the Great who ordered the
rebuilding
of the
grand temple
of Amon in
Kharga
oases,
the reliefs
depicting
him
56
Ezra, 1:1-4,
6:3-5.
Apart
from the
temple
at
Jerusalem,
Eanna at
Uruk,
Enunnah
at
Ur,
and the
temples
in
Babylon.
57
Diakonoff,
"Media":
38,136-37.
58
In
1955,
in violation of the
Segregation
Laws in
Montgomery,
Alabama,
Rosa
Parks refused to surrender her bus seat to a
white
passenger
and was arrested.
59
Matakddn,
107:9-12
(Perikhanian, op.
cit.:
638).
60
Herodotus,
III: 30ff account of
Cambyses
is not
accepted by contemporary
schol
ars.
61
G.
Posener,
La
premiere
domination Perse en
Egypte:
Recueil
d'inscriptions hierogly
phiques,
Le
Caire,
1936:1-47.
62
A.
Kuhrt,
The Ancient Near
East,
2
vols.,
London-New
York,
1997: 663.
63
Posener,
op.
cit.: 17.
64
A.
Gardiner,
Egypt of
the
Pharaohs, London,
1961: 366-67.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
113
in
typical Egyptian style
of
worship,
and nourished
by
the
Egyptian
gods.65
Another
aspect
of the tolerance of the Iranians towards different
re
ligions
and cultures is illustrated
by
the
marriage
of Iranian rulers to
women of different
religions
to that of their
own
and
vice-versa,
a
few
well-known
examples
include: the
marriage
of
Lydian Aryenis
to Ast
yages;66
the
marriages
of the
Jewish
Esther to Xerxes I
(486-465 B.C.)
and
Susannah/Sosanduxt,
daughter
of Res
galuda
or
patriarch
of the
Jews
to
Yazdgard
I
(399-420 A.D.),
etc.
Consequently
it becomes evident that
"Many
of the
royal
brides
were
non-Iranians,
and
pride
in
Aryan
de
scent,
as
found in the Old Persian
inscriptions,
does not
preclude
an ac
tual mixture of blood".67
A dark
period
of social and
religious
intolerance in the
pre-Islamic
history
of Iran were the
persecutions instigated by
the
uncompromising
and zealot Sasanian
magupat (high priest)
Karter of all
religions
and
sects
including
Jews, Buddhists, Brahmins,
Nasoreans
(Judeo-Chris
tians?), Christians,
Maktaks
(Mandeans?),
and Zandiks
(Mazdean
here
tics),68
except
for the orthodox Zoroastrians. This
was
followed
by
Mihr
Sapur,
the mobaddn
mobad,69
and then Mihr-Narseh.70 The unfortunate
incident of
persecution
also
spilled
over to Armenia in the
reign
of
Yazdgard
II
(438-457 A.D.), however,
the
governors
who followed after
Yazdgard's
death restored
religious
freedom
once
again.
Therefore,
the
few
periods
of
persecution
encountered did not last for
long. According
to
John
of
Ephesus
and the Armenian historian Elise
Vardapet,
the
King
of
Kings Sapur
I
(243-272 A.D.)
gave
an
edict to the effect that
"Magi,
Zandikis
(Manichaeans), Jews,
Christians and all men
of whatever
relig
ion should be left undisturbed and at
peace
in their belief'71?this is of
enormous
importance coming
from a
zealous Zoroastrian
king.
Narseh
(293-303 A.D.)
also
appears
to have reinstated the
policy
of
religious
lib
erty
once
more.72
65
Posener,
op.
cit.:
58, 176, 178;
M. F.
Gyles,
Pharaonic Policies and Adminstration
663-323
B.C.,
Chapel
Hill, N.C.,
1959: 70.
66
J.
M.
Cook,
The Persian
Empire,
London,
1986: 25.
67
Frye, op.
cit.: 97.
68
A.-M.
Chaumont,
"Les Sassanides et la christianisation de
l'Empire
iranien au
IIe siecle de notre
ere", RHR, CLXV,
1964:165-202.
69
S.
Wikander,
Feuerpriester
in Kleinasien und
Iran, Lund,
1946: 51.
70
A.-M.
Chaumont,
"Recherches sur
le
clerge
Zoroastrien", RHR, CLVIII,
1960: 47.
71
J. Duchesne-Guillemin,
"Zoroastrian
Religion",
CHI,
vol.
3(2),
Cambridge,
1983
879.
72
Duchesne-Guilemin, op.
cit.: 885.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
114
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
The Rights of Women
Demographically speaking,
women constitute about half of the
population
of the
world,
consequently
no
democracy
can
be
meaningful
without the
active
participation
of women
and the
protection
of their
rights.
Much of the recent studies about the status of women in the Middle
East have been conducted
by
women
scholars. Even
though they
have of
ten
presented
the
gist
of the historical evidence
reasonably correctly,
their
judgments
were often marred
by
biased feminist visions. Most of them
have tied the
history
of women in Iran with that of
Mesopotamia
and the
Arab
world,
whereas there
are
marked differences in
many aspects
of the
lives of
women in ancient and modern Iran with their
neighbouring
coun
tries.73
Consequently,
a
big
elusion has
developed concerning
the status of
Iranian
women
due to misinformed Greek
reports74
on
the one
hand,
and
distorted modern
scholarship
on
the other. The overall
presentation
has
portrayed
the
women in Iran to have been
kept
under lock and
key.
Much
of this is
proved
to be
wrong
by
the
discovery
of
more
reliable archaeo
logical, inscriptional
and statistical evidence.
One such modern distorted
monograph
among many
is
by
the German
scholar Ilse
Seibert,
being
a
good example
of the
general misapprehension
concerning
women in ancient Iran. She
sums
up
her
own
presentation
as
following:
"The
pages
of this book have
frequently
had to
report
that the
women had
no
rights equal
to those
enjoyed by
men.
She
was
thought
of
lesser
value,
her
position
was
weaker,
in the
family,
as well
as in
society;
she
was,
for
example, paid
less for her
work,
etc".75 Her
concluding
re
marks
are
contrary
to the
findings
of the eminent
experts
in the field. Cf.
Professor Heidemarie Koch: "Eine
genaue
Untersuchung
der Verwal
tungstafelchen
aus
Persepolis
hat
nun
zeigen
konnen,
da(3 gerade
die
persischen
Frauen unter der Herrschaft Dareios d. Gr. eine
Stellung
in
nehatten,
wie sie fur alle antiken Volker
einmalig
ist";76
and further:
"Wir haben
es
also im
persischen Gro(3reich
unter
Konig
Dareios mit
einer
Gleichberechtigung
zu
tun,
um
die im
Europa
des 20.
Jahrhunderts
noch immer
gekampft
wird!".77 Professor
J.
M. Cook: "We should be
chary
73
For an unbiased
presentation,
consult H.
Koch,
"Es kiindet Dareios der
Konig...
Vom Leben im
persischen GroPreich", Kulturgesischte
der antiken
Welt,
Bd.
55,
Mainz
Rhein, 1992,
chapter
6; eadem,
"Zu den Frauen im
Achamenidenreich",
Iranian and
Indo-European
Studies: Memorial Volume
ofOtakarKlima, Marburg,
1994:125-141.
74
Plutarch, Artaxerxes, 27.1; 5.6; idem, Themistocles, 26:5,
etc.
751.
Seibert,
Women in Ancient Near
East,
New
York-London,
1974: 52.
76
Koch,
Es kiindet Dareios...: 241.
77
Ibid.: 234.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
115
of
assuming
that the
position
accorded to women
generally
in Persian
family
life and
society
was a low
one";78
and Professor Pierre Briant: "Mais
les
princesse royales, quant
a
elles,
ne vivaient certainement
pas
cloitrees
dans leurs
appartements".79
The
recovery
of numerous statuettes in ancient Elam indicates the im
portance
of the Mother Goddess in Elamite
society.80
Most of the Elamite
inscriptions
do not mention
any lineage,
an
indication of
possible
non-he
reditary government.81
As
early
as
the Old Elamite
Kingdom
(2200 B.C.),
the role of
women was
significant,
and feminism
was
well
developed,
to an
extent that the male heirs to the thrown
were
elected
or
appointed
ac
cording
to maternal
lineage
of the sister of the
king82
who was
highly
re
spected
and bore the
grand
title of Amma
Hastuk,
"Reverend Mother".83
The
kings
sometimes omitted to mention their
paternal lineage,
and in the
cases
that
they
did,
they
often did not have
royal
or
high-ranking
titles.84
In one
such
case,
in the search for the
legitimisation
of his
lineage,
one
Elamite
king
called himself the "Beloved Man of
[the
Lady] Peyak".85
Among
Elamite
queens
of
importance,
we
may
mention
Nahuhnte-Utu,
the wife of Silhak-Insusinak
(1150-1120 B.C.).
The
higher position
of women in the
society
was not
limited to Elam
proper,
but the whole of the
empire: "During
Achaemenid times a woman
in
Babylonia
(as
well
as in Elam and
Egypt) enjoyed great independence
and could have her
own
property,
of which she
was
freely
in
charge".86
Children,
male and
female,
equally
reached the
age
of adulthood at fif
teen,
and
once
married,
the husband and wife continued to have
equal
titles,
the
"Lady
of the House" and the "Lord of the House".87 Divorce
could be initiated
by
either
party,
the wife
was
entitled to all her
own
property, possessions, dowry,
donatio
propter nuptias (kapen),
and
com
pensation
if divorce
was
initiated
by
the husband. The wife of
a
de
78
J.
M.
Cook,
"The Rise of the Achaemenids and Establishment of their
Empire",
CHI, 2,
Cambridge,
1985: 226.
79
P.
Briant,
Histoire de
Vempire
Perse: De
Cyrus
a
Alexandre, Paris,
1996: 296.
80
P.
Amiet, Elam, Auvers-Sur-Oise, 1966;
Frye, op.
cit.: 60-61.
81
F.
Malbran-Labat,
Les
inscriptions royales
de Suse:
Briques
de
Vepoque paleo-elamite
a
VEmpire
neo-elamite, Paris,
1995:171.
82
Ibid.:
36-37,
39-40
83
Ibid.: 34-35.
84
Diakonoff,
"Elam": 13.
85
Malbran-Labat, op.
cit.:
60; Diakonoff, op.
cit.:
17,
note 1.
86
M.
Dandamaev,
V.
Lukonin,
The Cultural and Social Institutions
of
Ancient
Iran,
Iran,
Cambridge
1989:119
ff., 124; Koch, op.
cit.: 241.
87
M.
Schwartz,
"The Old Eastern Iranian World View
According
to the
Avestan",
CHI,
vol.
2,
Cambridge,
1985: 655-656.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
116
D.
Borbor/
Iran and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
ceased husband had
equal
share of inheritance with the sons. Women's
rights
to
property
were
protected
from
arbitrary
encroachment.88
The edicts of the
Avesta,
which is often associated with the Median
pe
riod,
bestowed
complete equality
on
both
genders. Amongst
the immor
tals,
the
invoking
of the
fravasis
of women
alongside
those of
men were
common
practice;
these included AradvT
Sura,
the female
yazat (goddess)
of the
waters,
and
AsT,
the female
yazat
of
reward,
blessing,
and fortune.
In the Achaemenian
era,
married
working
women were
allowed to
cope
with their
family
life and
were
spared
from
jobs
that involved
over
time or
travel,
and
a
period
of remunerated rest was
officially provided
for
child-bearing
mothers. The
only
observable discrimination
appears
in
the difference of bonus allocated for
a new
born
boy
of 20 litres of bar
ley
and 10 litres of
wine,
which
was
double the amount allocated for
a
newborn
girl.89
The existence of innumerable
women in Iran of different
epochs
as
heads of
state,
as
governors,
in
important
social,
military
and decision
making positions,
and also
as owners
of
important holdings,
in itself is
proof
of
equality.
Diverse historical information
come
down to us is indica
tive of continuous and
powerful application
of
mental,
social and
political
activity
and
indulgence by
Iranian women in all levels and
categories
of
the
society.
We
possess very meagre
information
concerning
education in ancient
Iran,
particularly
on
the feminine side. There is some
evidence that the
girls
were instructed
on
domestic
affairs,
but this
probably
meant that
they
received this
over
and above their
general
education. The
more
privileged
were
likely
to have obtained
higher
and
specialised
education
even in such branches
as
law and science.90 Women are attested to have
practiced
as
teachers.91
Traditionally,
the dibirs
or
the scribes who
were re
sponsible
for the
recording
and the documentation of events and accounts
were
often
multi-lingual,
or
trilingual,
and
highly
educated. These
posts
were
occupied by
both
men
and
women,
an
acknowledgment
of advanced
degree
of education bestowed
on Iranian women.
It is
appropriate,
at this
juncture,
to mention also the unfortunate mis
use
by
some scholars of the later Arabic term harem92
to describe the Ladies
88
Perikhanian, op.
cit.: 648.
89
Koch,
op.
cit.: 233.
90
Chr.
Bartholomae,
Die Frau im sasanidischen
Recht,
Heidelberg,
1924:
8;
A. Chri
stensen,
Vlran sous
lessassanides,
Copenhague,
1944: 418.
91
Plato, Laws,
694c-695a.
92
For a discussion of
inappropriate
notions associated in our minds with the
term
harem,
see
J. Mabro,
Veiled
Half-truths,
London,
1991.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
117
Quarter
of the ancient Iranian rulers
or
nobility
with the same
description
and
impression,
as the
degrading
harems in the Arab world. This is
appro
priately
described
by
Amelie Kuhrt: "There is a
tendency
in
scholarship
today
to elide the lack of
clarity
about
this,
and about the
way
women as
sociated with the
king
were
organised, by
casual references to the 'harem'
as
though
it
explains everything".93
The Ladies
Quarter
of the Iranian
royal
court was
managed
on
elegant
and
dignified
manner,
somewhat
on the
same lines as
the ladies
quarter
of
the later
European
courts rather than the model of the Arabian harems.
In the recent
history
of
Iran,
the
Qajar period
has
undoubtedly
been
the most decadent not
only
from the
point
of view of state
management,
but also from the
point
of view of the status of
women. Even
so,
the socio
cultural
heritage
of women in Iran was so
developed
that women were
able to
play
an
important
role in the 1906-07 Constitutional Revolution.94
Among many,
BIbl Xatun Astarabad!
(1858/59-1921),
who was a
notable
writer, satirist,
and
one
of the
pioneering figures
in the women's move
ment of modern Iran. She
was an activist on feminism and a
supporter
of
the Constitutional Revolution.
Among many present day
activists we
may
mention
Mehrangeez
Kar,
Shahla
Lahiji
and Shirin
Ebadi,
the 2003 Noble
Peace Prize Laureate due to her
significant
and
pioneering
efforts for de
mocracy
and human
rights, especially
for the
rights
of women
and chil
dren.
An
outstanding
achievement of
women
after the Islamic Revolution
has been in the fields of
education,
employment, professional
and
political
affairs.
The
literacy
rate for
men
and
women
of the 15-25
age group
has be
come more or
less
equal.95
While in the
year
1999
only
82 % of the total
number of school
going
children attended
primary
school,
in
2005,
100 %
of
girls compared
with 92 % of
boys
were in attendance.96 The same
figures
for
secondary schooling
in 2005 stands at 80 % for
boys
as
against
77 % for
girls.97
In
1991,
only
85 % of the
girls
and 97 % of the
boys completed pri
mary school,
the
figure
for 2005 stood at 100 % for
girls
and 91 % for
boys.98
93
Kuhrt, op.
cit.: 526.
Although
the statement is made about ancient
Assyria,
it
applies just
as
aptly
to Iranian realities.
94
J.
Afary,
The Iranian Constitutional
Revolution,
1906-1911: Grassroots
Democracy,
Social
Democracy,
and the
Origin of
Feminism,
New
York, 1996;
M.
Bayat-Philipp,
"Women and Re
volution in
Iran",
L.
Beck,
N. Keddie
(Eds.)
Women in the Muslim
World,
Cambridge,
1978.
95
96.7 % for
women and 98.1 % for men
(UNESCO,
Institute
for
Statistics,
General
Statistics, 2005).
96
Ibid.
97
Ibid.
98
Ibid.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
118
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
In
1998,
52 % of the students
entering
universities were
women,
which has
changed
to 60 % at
present
time.99 The increased level of education of
women
and their intensive involvement in various
occupations
has led to
another
very important phenomenon,
and that is a
sharp
decrease in an
nual
population growth
to a
figure
below 0.9 %.100
Strange
as it
may
seem,
the role of women in the 1979 Islamic Revolu
tion and
post-Revolutionary
Iran has been
paramount.
The active
partici
pation
of women
both
as
electors and candidates in
municipal
and
parlia
mentary
elections,
and their active role as voters in
presidential
elections
have made them an
important
factor to be counted
on
by political
candi
dates. Their involvement in all levels of the
society, including politics,
management, government,
education,
research and business have in
creased
tremendously. Although
women
participation
in
management
(as
in
many
other
countries,
including
some
of the advanced
societies)
is still
very
low,
nevertheless in the
post-revolutionary
Iran,
women
have be
come a
powerful
force that the modern Iranian
society
and administration
can no
longer ignore.101
Throughout
the
history
of
Iran,
the eminence of the statute of
women
has been based
on
three distinctive criteria:
equality, dignity,
and
privacy.
Women in Iran
enjoyed
traditional
dignity
and time-honoured
re
spect
from Iranian
men,
even after the invasion of Iran
by
the forces of Is
lam who
imposed many
limitations.
Democracy
As
early
as
the 3rd
or even 4th millennia
B.C.,
beside the Great
King
of
Elam,
there existed
"kings"
(Acadian sarrum),
"governors"
(sakkanak
kum),
"priest-princes"
(issiakkum),
and
"judges"
of the individual
city
states. Some
city-states
had both
a
"king"
and
a
"governor",
or a
"king"
and
a
"priest-prince".
The
royal
title
apparently
did not
pass
from fa
ther to
son,
and the
kings
were
probably
elected from
amongst
lesser
dignitaries.102
There
are some
indirect indications of the existence of
99
G.
Mehran,
"The Paradox of Tradition and
Modernity
in Female Education in
the Islamic
Republic
of
Iran",
Comparative
Education
Review, 47,
Chicago,
2003: 269
286.
100
UNESCO,
Institute
for
Statistics,
2004.
101
For a
balanced
overview,
see
N, Keddie,
"Women in Iran since
1979",
Social Re
search,
2000.
102
Thus Luh-hissan of Awan was the
son of
a
certain
Hisep-raser
I and not of his
own
predecessor,
Kukku-sime-temti,
and PUZUR-Insusinak
was the
son of one Sim
pi-ishuk,
and not of the
proceeding king
Hita
(Diakonoff, op.
cit.:
7-8,
and note
l).
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
119
popular
assemblies of communities in the
period
of Old Elamite
King
dom.103
Although
our
information
on
the
organisation
of the
Empire
of the
Median Confederation is more
than
scanty,
we
can,
nevertheless,
confi
dently
construct the overall characteristic features of its
system
of rule
and administration.
The Median
Empire
was
formed
by
the
confederation
of various Satra
pies104 (kingdoms
or
states)
with
very old,
highly developed,
stratified
urban civilisation
including
Elam,
Babylonia, Syria-Mesopotamia, Dascy
lium,
Lydia,
and
Ionia; also,
Assyria,
northern
Mesopotamia,
the land of
the
Mannaeans, Uratu,
and the
valley
of the
upper
Euphrates.
In the be
ginning
of the 7th
century
B.C. smaller
political city-state
units
pre
dominated. These
possessed
(semi-)
democratic social
structures;
the
highest ranking
administrator bore the title of the "Lord of Town
ship"105
(Lord
Mayor).
With later
expansion
of the
city-states,
the
administrative title of the "Lord of State"106
(Governor)
also came into
being. Any high ranking
civil servant was
obliged
to reckon with
organs
of
self-government
in the
type
of a
"council of elders"
and/or
a
"popu
lar
assembly",
which
might
have
elected,
confirmed
or
controlled his
position
and conduct.
Everyday
administration was
carried out
by
some
type
of a
"council of
leading
men" of the
community.
The Mannaean
Kingdom,
south of lake
Urmlya,
formed of no
less
than
fifty separate city-states,
and
a
forerunner to the Median
Empire
was
thus
a
confederation of several states in
itself,107
and
may
be taken
as a
good general example
of the Median
approach
to democratic rule.
The Mannaean
king, quite contrary
to Western
concepts
about Eastern
rule,
did not
govern
as an
autocrat,
but
by
consent of
a
"legislative
council",
which consisted of the
grandees,
elders, councilors, kinsmen, gov
ernors,
and
chiefs
in
charge
of the
country.108
The
analogous systems
of
administration were also to be found in the
city-states
of
early
Sumer,
in Hurrian
city-states
and Hittite Old
Kingdom.109
Such
a
practice
was not
unique
to the
highest
echelon of the
gov
ernment,
but was
also the
case on
satrapal
level.
Cambyses
convened
the "council" of
''leading
Persians who
were
present
with the
army11
in order
103
Ibid.: 14.
104
Usually governed by
a
satrap
(governor).
105
Roughly comparable
to the Avestan
vispaiti- (Diakonoff,
"Media":
91,135).
106
Which resembled the Avestan
dairihupaiti
(ibid.: 139).
107
Diakonoff, op.
cit.:
65,
72.
108
Ibid.: 72-73.
109
Ibid.:
73,
note 1.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
120
D.
Borbor/
Iran and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
to
give
his last instructions in
Syria.110 Cyrus
the
Younger
summoned
the "council of seven" of the noblest Persians in his train to court-mar
tial his relative Orontes who had colluded
against
his rule.111
Darius the Great is said to have been elected
as
the
king by
a
"council
of seven" who discussed various
types
of
government.
The "council's"
final decision
was to continue with the status
quo,
oligarchy according
to
Herodotus.112
In order to court-martial
a
rebellious
satrap,
Darius the
Great called
a
meeting
of "all the chief of the
Persians/
the
leading
men
in the
country".113
Xerxes I called
an
assembly
of "of noblest
Persians/
the
leading
men in the
country"114
to decide whether
or not to make
an
expedition against
Athens.
The Parthian
"King
of
Kings"
was
either ratified
or
appointed by
a
"council":
"According
to
Poseidonius,
the
supreme
council
(auveSpiov/
Synedrion)
of the Parthians consists of two
groups:
one
that of the
[king's]
kinsmen and the other that of wise men
and
magi,
from both of
which
groups
the
kings
were
appointed".115
The later Sasanian
kings,
as
before,
did not rule
autocratically,
but
by
means
of
a
hierarchy
of
appointed
or
elected institutions. One of
these,
the
frequently
mentioned
"King's
Council",
at the time of
Sapur
I,
apart
from the heads of
states,
satraps
and other
popular participants,
was
also well
represented by
women
and included his
mother,
his sister
Denak,
his
wife,
the wives of his
sons and other
dignitaries
of the state.116 The
"king's
council",
which had
a
well established hierarchic
system
of
proto
col
(a
proof
of its ancient
tradition)
followed
an
order of
precedence
for
the
speakers.
Similar
traditions,
including
a
distinctive emblem of rank
(a
gdh
"throne",
a
barj
"cushion" and
a
pativ
"diadem")
reigned
at the court of
the Armenian Arsacids117?a
good proof
that the individual states had their
own
independent hierarchy
of
representation
in local decision
making.
The rulers of the individual confederates
enjoyed complete
inde
pendence, adopted high sounding
titles,
struck their
own
coins,
col
lected their
own
taxes,
levied their
own
armed forces and carried
on in
dependent policies.
The armed forces of
Iran,
until
very
recent
times,
110
Herodotus, 111:65,
trans. Selincourt: 231.
111
Xenophon,
Anabasis,
1:6.
112
Herodotus,
III:80ff.
113
Ibid., 111:127,
trans. Rawlinson:
216/
Selincourt: 255.
114
Ibid., VII:8,
trans. Rawlinson:
391/
trans. Selincourt: 443.
115
Strabo, XI:9.3;
Frye, op.
cit.: 191.
116
V. G.
Lukonin, "Political,
Social and Administrative Institutions: Taxes and
Trade", CHI,
vol.
3(2),
1983: 698-707.
117
Perikhanian, op.
cit.: 707.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
D.
Borbor/Iran
and the Caucasus 12
(2008)
101-122
121
were
always
run on a
confederated arrangement.
In case
of
war,
each
sa
trapy
contributed its share to the central
government,
in
troops,
mili
tary equipment, military expertise,
and financial
contribution,
accord
ing
to its
size,
population
and financial
importance.
A Conclusive Remark
As the above brief account of various details of the Iranian
history
and culture
shows,
the ideas of
democracy,
social
equality,
and the
confederative
system
of state were inherent characteristics of the Ira
nian
society
from the
very
beginning
of its formation. An
important
element of the Iranian
Weltanschauung
and culture has
always
been the
enormous
respect
towards
women.
Despite
the
religious
restrictions
and
regulations imposed
upon
women in
post-Islamic
Iran,
the Iranian
women have
preserved
their
conspicuous position
in the
family
and the
society.
This content downloaded from 130.115.86.32 on Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:11:39 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions